All the drama, all the deaths, and all the hardship involved in racketeering, theft and garbage schemes -- and for what? A pretty mid take and most of their crew ending up in prison or in the ground.
Instead, they could instead have just opened some daycare centers and did some medicaid fraud in Minneapolis and stole billions the easy way.
MSN: Somali scammers allegedly stole almost as much in Minnesota as entire Somalia GDP
Took the kids on a cruise last week.
It began well enough with a nice flight to New Orleans that was on time, easy transfer to the ship from the New Orleans airport, with the only downside that the fellow in front of me was coughing quite a bit -- more on this later.
We then had a pretty quick embarkation onto the ship and settled in.
The first day at sea was great, a nice time wandering the ship, relaxing and having some nice meals, including a specialty meal at the steakhouse that was magnificent.
The second day we got to Cozumel and had decided to go to the Kuza beach and adventure park.
We got there from the port and had a nice time on the beach and had a nice lunch, and more time on the beach, but then it started raining heavily. The rain would not stop and it was really coming down
So we got out of there a bit early and got back to the ship rather thoroughly soaked.
Apparently, late December in the Western Caribbean is the rainy season.
The next day we landed at Roatan. It was raining a bit which meant the visibility for the planned dive would be less than great.
And it was rather choppy and wavy too.
This meant the Leah got to experience being seasick for her first certified ocean dive.
She along with another diver were rather green. She did the first dive anyways.
Luckily the surface interval was done back at the dock rather than on the boat.
Both she and the other diver decided that since the dock was still moving (it wasn't) they were going to skip the second dive.
We then headed back to the ship.
The next day it was raining again as we docked in Belize. The rain also came this time with a healthy dose of thunder and lightning.
Not good when you're signed up to do zip-lining. High above the trees on a steel cable in a lightning storm- what could possibly go wrong?
Yep, that got cancelled.
We went ashore anyways in rain ponchos and wandered around a bit and went back to the ship.
At this point I was coming down with a heavy cough and feeling rather lousy.
I was feeling really out of it the rest of the day and the next morning, having coughed through the night and not gotten much sleep, and basically stayed in the room sleeping for most of it, coming out for dinner.
The next day it was rough and rainy again so Costa Maya was skipped as a port and we had a day at sea.
Still feeling lousy, I discovered that eating a honey packet actually stops a cough. The ship had pretty much no cold or flu meds to buy and we had neglected to pack any. But, the honey really helped. Good to know.
We then had our scheduled day at sea. Honey was consumed by me in mass quantities.
I was feeling a bit better.
The next day, Sunday, we disembarked early and got to the airport early. Had I known that early arrival and debarkation would happen, I would have booked the earlier flight out and the next bit of fun would not have happened.
The flight home was delayed, and then delayed some more, being stuck in Detroit for maintenance. So we were stuck in the airport for hours.
After a three-hour delay, the plane it arrived and the gate attendant said she had good news and bad news.
The good news - the plane was here.
The bad news - the flight attendants had timed out due to the delay and there was no replacement crew so the flight wasn't going anywhere.
That the airline hadn't anticipated this was a bit of a problem and was rather dumb.
There were no scheduled flights to Detroit for the next day so they booked us on another airline through Chicago leaving at 6 am. At least they put us up in a hotel.
We finally got to the hotel after 9pm and went to sleep and then got up at 4 am and headed back to the airport.
At least we had some beignets and coffee for breakfast there.
The flight to Chicago was no problem. Easy boarding and a smooth fliught with just a little turbulence
We then had to dash to the gate for the flight to Detroit, only to be told we were on standby as we were the last to check in and the flight was oversold.
We were the last to check in as we had just been delivered there.
We did manage to get seats and were soon on the aircraft waiting to depart.
And waiting.
And waiting.
We got deiced and waited some more,
And more. Apparently waiting for the deicing paperwork.
We finally departed over an hour and a half later.
Quite a bit of turbulence. Funnily enough it didn't bother me at all but it really bothered the kids.
Finally got to the airport and then home and that was that.
I promptly took some NyQuil and went to sleep.
Not quite the vacation I wanted, but it was the one we got so we made the best of it.
Lansing State Journal: Police ask public for help after East Lansing Jewish Center vandalized twice
Police are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect who appears to have thrown rocks at the center, 115 Albert St., and painted Nazi symbols on its front door during Hanukkah, an eight-day holiday in the Jewish faith marked by the nightly lighting of candles.
Interestingly enough, neither the Detroit News nor the Detroit Free Press felt the two vandalism attacks apparently by the same black-clad mask wearing a-hole were worth mentioning.
The attacker first threw rocks at the building and then returned a few hours later to spray-paint the windows and throw more rocks.
Unfortunately, this is just more of the globalizing the intifada that the left has been pushing.
Not by doing anything to actually stop crime mind you.
Instead the progressive solution is to have police ignore crimes.
The Detroit Free Press: Could Detroit end minor traffic stops? Michigan cities offer road map
Detroit police oversight board members hoping to limit minor traffic stops after a series of police shootings that started with issues including alleged license plate and tinted window violations can look to the experiences of at least three Michigan jurisdictions that have restricted such stops in recent years.
“Driving equality”-style ordinances and policies in Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor and East Lansing have aimed to prevent racial profiling and reduce citizen contacts with police. . .
Yep, if you ignore low-level crimes, and don't pursue them, you let the more major criminals continue their actions uninterrupted, then you will get less interactions where criminals are caught by police.
You will also get more serious crimes committed by these criminals as a result as they weren't stopped and then caught for lesser offenses on their way to commit more serious crimes.
People aren't being shot by police for license plate and tinted window violations nor for failing to have their cars registered and up to date.
They are getting shot when, after being pulled over, they're found to have more serious warrants, or are driving drunk, or otherwise committing illegal acts and THEN THEY FORCEFULLY RESIST ARREST.
If you want less people getting shot while committing crimes, great or small, maybe teach them to stop resisting arrest.
But, that would imply personal responsibility (and lack thereof) is the cause of the issue, and not the systemic racism nonsense the progressives are spouting.
Mlive.com: Here’s why ‘Neighborhood Crime Watch’ signs in Ann Arbor are going away
City Council voted 10-0 Monday night, Dec. 15, to direct city staff to remove all neighborhood watch signs in the city by July 15 as the city strives to be more welcoming and inclusive.Because watching out for your neighbors and your property and theirs and being against crime is, according to the city council, racist.
Because, of course it is.
And of course, they brought up the canard of Trayvon Martin:
a young Black teenager walking through a neighborhood he had every right to be in, yet perceived as a threat simply for being there.The tragedy of Martin being fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, did not happen in isolation, Harrison said. It happened in a broader environment that normalized surveillance over relationship and fear over familiarity, she said.She left out the part where dear, (not so) innocent Trayvon was killed only after trying to bash that volunteer's head against the pavement.
Because of course she glossed over that.
Then, of course, she runs with the progressive bromides for which an easy objection is that the bromides are simply not supported by any evidence that they are true:“Neighborhood watch was built on an old idea that heterogeneous neighborhoods create danger,” she said. “Ann Arbor is built on the understanding that diversity creates strength.”
. . .
“As we remove signs that have long communicated warning, we also have an opportunity to replace them with messages that say something better,” she said. “When people feel welcome walking down the street, visiting family, looking for a place to live, or simply existing in public, our neighborhoods are not just more inclusive. They are safer.”
There's no facts whatsoever that has shown that diversity creates strength, noir that Neighborhood watch was built on the idea that heterogeneous neighborhoods create danger - she just made that up.
Nor is there any facts that a neighborhood is safer by having people feel inclusive. Indeed when criminals feel included and unwatched, crime tends to increase and a neighborhood becomes less safe.
Because of course he did.
New Yorkers are going to get exactly what they voted for, good and hard.
Fox News: Mamdani appoints convicted armed robber to public safety transition team
According to past reports, Linen, a Bronx native who was once signed to Def Jam, was convicted of two felony robberies in the late 1990s.In 1999, a Bronx jury is said to have found him guilty in two armed robberies of taxi drivers, per the New York Daily News.
Well, I guess an armed robber would know all about public safety and be all for Mamdani's "gun violence" initiatives.
Who's next on Mamdani's appointment list?
Maybe he'll appoint Bonnie Blue for the NYC Health Department next.
After all, she knows all about the risks of close contact with multiple people, communicable diseases, and the transfer of bodily fluids. but she may get beat out by Typhoid Mary.
Jocelyn Benson is Michigan's current Secretary of State charged with conducting, overseeing, and counting the results our state's elections.
She also happens to be running for governor now.
And, she also happens to have a history of being shall we say, awfully flexible with the rules, in ways that happen to favor herself and fellow Democrats?
Indeed, she broke election and campaign finance laws when announcing her campaign from a state government facility. But, to no one's surprise, the fellow Democrat Attorney General and Benson Buddy Dana Nessel announced there would be no sanctions for the wrongdoing.
Quite the conflict of interest there, as the one charged to administer the election happens to be the same person running in it, especially as she has quite the history of not exactly abiding by the rules.
The Michigan Municipal Employees' Retirement System is on a roll.
It's a losing roll, but quite a roll nonetheless.
$155 million in losses -- in two transactions.
The Detroit Free Press: 2 Swiss citizens caused $55M loss, municipal retirement manager says
A nonprofit corporation that manages employee pension funds for more than 1,000 Michigan local governments alleges it was defrauded out of about $55 million after entrusting the money to two Swiss citizens who weren't registered investment advisers.
The losses the Municipal Employees' Retirement System (MERS) suffered on investments in alternative energy projects — disclosed in a Sept. 30 lawsuit filed by MERS in federal court in Grand Rapids — are on top of $100 million MERS lost on a coffee-growing venture in Hawaii
That's $155 million lost in just two gonzo transactions that any responsible fiduciary would have not just walked away from, but ran.
Why a Michigan entity tried to buy and run a coffee plantation in Hawaii is very questionable, but I'm sure the trips to Hawaii to look into it were great.
Don't worry, taxpayers will likely be picking up the pension losses for the government employees who lost money due to the ineptness of other government employees.
